FRONT VOWEL CHAIN SHIFT AND THE VOWEL REPHONOLOGIZATION IN EARLY MIDDLE CHINESE

In the history of Chinese general language, with the back vowel raised chain shift, the front vowel raised chain shift occurred in the early period of the Middle Ancient. This front raising is a push chain started slightly later than the back vowel raised chain shift which also happened in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Comparing the front and back vowel raised chain shift, the symmetrical and non-symmetric sound-change output patterns can be observed. A series of vowel rephonologization resulted from front vowel raised chain shift was characterized by the differentiation and merging of rhyme groups Ge₁ Ge₃, Zhi Ge₂, and Zhi₂ Zhi₁, which formed Ma-Er, Jia, Jie, Ma-San, Zhi, Zhi, and Qi rhymes in the Middle Ancient with fronting and collaboration of rhyme groups Wei₁ Wei₂ and Zhi. As for the patterns in Qieyun of rhymes, Jia and Qi were shaped in Liu Song Dynasty, while the formation of Jie rhyme was after the Liu Song, and the Zhi and Zhi rhymes were not earlier than the Jin Dynasty. The form of front vowel raised chain shift is incomplete and belongs to localized chain shift. The structural adjustment of Chinese vowel system occurred after the start of the long vowel raising and before the completion of the short vowel lengthening.